IOSH Managing Safely key terms

The shared attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of everyone in an organisation towards health and safety. A positive culture means people at every level genuinely value safety and act on it without needing to be forced.

A structured set of plans, procedures and arrangements an organisation uses to control health and safety risks and keep improving. It typically covers policy, responsibilities, risk control, training, monitoring and review.

A four-stage method of continuous improvement: plan what needs to be done, put it into practice, check whether it worked, then act to correct or standardise before starting the cycle again.

The reasons organisations manage health and safety: moral (people should not be harmed), legal (laws, enforcement and penalties) and financial (costs of accidents, insurance, lost time, damaged equipment and reputation).

A careful examination of what could cause harm to people and a judgement about how serious it could be, so that sensible precautions can be decided and put in place.

An estimate of how probable it is that a hazard will actually cause harm, given the way the activity is carried out and the controls already in place.

How serious the harm would be if a hazard caused an injury or ill health, ranging from minor discomfort through to permanent disability or death.

A simple scoring method that combines likelihood and severity, often in a table, to give a low, medium or high rating so that risks can be ranked and tackled in priority order.

The risk that remains once controls have been applied. It should be compared with the original assessment to judge whether the risk is now acceptable or further action is needed.

A quick, ongoing judgement of risk made by workers as conditions change, for example at the scene of an unexpected event, before deciding whether it is safe to continue.

A ranked order of ways to reduce risk, starting with removing the hazard altogether and working down through less reliable measures to personal protective equipment as the last resort.

Removing the hazard completely from the workplace, for example by stopping a dangerous task or redesigning the process so the hazard no longer exists. It is the most effective control available.

A physical change to the workplace or equipment that reduces risk at source, such as machine guarding, local exhaust ventilation, interlocks or sound enclosures. It protects everyone without relying on individual behaviour.

Clothing or equipment worn or held by a worker to protect against a specific hazard, such as gloves, ear defenders or safety glasses. It protects only the wearer and depends on correct use and fit.

A formal, written method for carrying out a task safely, setting out the sequence of steps, the controls required, who is responsible and any checks or authorisations needed before work starts.

A written authorisation allowing a specific high-risk task to go ahead under closely defined conditions, with checks that isolation, gas testing or other precautions are in place before and during the work.

The legal and moral obligation on an employer to protect the health, safety and welfare of employees and anyone else affected by the business, so far as is reasonably practicable.

The duties of workers to take reasonable care of themselves and others, follow training and instructions, report hazards and defective equipment, and never misuse anything provided for health and safety.

Someone with the necessary training, knowledge, experience and skills to carry out a particular health and safety task reliably, and who understands the limits of their own competence.

A way of balancing the level of risk against the cost, time and difficulty of controlling it. Grossly disproportionate cost can make a control unreasonable, but cost alone is never a sufficient excuse.

A formal instruction from a health and safety inspector requiring a business to act. An improvement notice sets a deadline for fixing a breach; a prohibition notice stops an activity immediately or after a stated time.

Something with the potential to cause harm, such as a substance, machine, activity or condition. The hazard is the source of harm; the level of risk depends on how it is used and controlled.

Lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling or carrying a load by hand or bodily force. Poor manual handling is a major cause of back and other musculoskeletal injuries at work.

Any material, including chemicals, dusts, fumes, gases or biological agents, that can harm health if inhaled, swallowed, absorbed through the skin or brought into contact with the body.

Unwanted or harmful sound. At high levels or over long periods it can cause permanent hearing loss and tinnitus, and it can also make warnings and speech harder to hear.

Work in any place where a person could fall and be injured, including work above ground, at ground level next to an opening, or on a fragile surface. Falls are a leading cause of workplace deaths.

Loss of footing on a slippery surface, catching a foot on an obstacle, or falling on the same level. These are among the most common workplace injuries and are usually simple to prevent.

Any unplanned event that did, or could have, caused harm, damage or disruption. In health and safety the word covers accidents that caused injury as well as near misses.

An unplanned event that did not cause injury or damage but had the potential to do so. Reporting near misses gives early warning of problems before somebody is actually hurt.

The underlying reason an incident happened, such as a poor procedure, inadequate training or weak management. It must be fixed to stop the same type of event happening again.

The UK Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations. They require employers to report certain serious workplace incidents to the enforcing authority within set timescales.

A step taken after an incident or a monitoring finding to remove the cause of the problem and stop it recurring, with a named person responsible and a completion date.

Checking health and safety before things go wrong, through inspections, audits and observation of behaviour, so that weaknesses are found and fixed early rather than after an injury.

Looking back at what has already happened, using accident, ill-health and near-miss data, to identify trends, learn lessons and check whether controls are actually working.

A measure chosen to show how well health and safety is performing, such as the number of inspections completed or the percentage of corrective actions closed on time.

A systematic, usually documented check of the whole safety management system against a standard, to confirm that arrangements exist, are suitable and are genuinely being followed in practice.

An injury at work that causes the person to take time off beyond the shift or day on which it happened. It is a widely used reactive measure of safety performance.